Brussels should stop pushing to include financial services in the trade and investment agreement under negotiations between the EU and the US, said Washington’s envoy Anthony L. Gardner in an exclusive interview with EurActiv.

Days before Italy assumes the presidency of the EU on 1 July, the country’s top man in Brussels said his government will push a reform agenda, starting with an aggressive plan for investment to reinvigorate the bloc, and inject new blood into the anemic recovery.

Strategists in the European Parliament have started crunching numbers to find a palatable coalition, despite the political earthquake in France, Denmark and the UK, where Eurosceptic parties came out first in the EU election.

EXCLUSIVE / A group of pro-Europe British Conservatives has decided to launch a new party to stand in the upcoming European elections as an alternative to David Cameron’s Conservatives, and Nigel Farage’s Eurosceptic UK Independence Party ( UKIP ).

In the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, leaders meeting in Brussels for an EU-US summit today (26 March) decided to reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian gas, and deliver a sound basis for a transatlantic trade deal.

EXCLUSIVE / Valdis Dombrovskis, the former prime minister of Latvia, is expected to step forward as candidate to represent the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) at this year's EU Parliament elections. Having turned his country from economic laggard to leader, he may know how to put Europe back on track, he told EurActiv in an exclusive interview .

The two liberal candidates in the European Commission presidential race, Olli Rehn and Guy Verhofstadt, reached an agreement yesterday (20 January), cancelling their expected duel over the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe's candidacy for the European Commission presidency.

EXCLUSIVE / Against the backdrop of completing the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė invited Europeans to take note of the protests in Kyiv's Maidan Square ahead of the European elections: “The Ukrainian people want what we have achieved,” she said in an exclusive interview with EurActiv.

SPECIAL REPORT / Brussels has postponed the adoption of the European health and safety strategy which since 2002 has allowed member states to move on an equal footing to protect workers. Putting the strategy on the backburner will undermine the sound functioning of the labour market, experts told EurActiv.